Timetoast lets you create timelines and share them on the web. Daniel Todd, the site's creator, wrote to let us know Getting Real was instrumental in his development process.
Just wanted to let you know I launched my one-man web app today and Getting Real was instrumental in my development process. It helped me focus and not get distracted by petty details or wander from the path to my goal.The app lets people create interactive timelines which they can add to their blog or website. It was built on a $0 budget during evenings and weekends. It's also a Rails app (incidentally my first production Rails app).
We asked Daniel to tell us more. Here's what he had to say:
How did Getting Real Inspire you?
Getting Real was inspirational to me because it was clear that 37Signals ate their own dog food on this one. Authoring the book was obviously approached in exactly the same way as they would approach a new web application, and it shows. The book is concise, to-the-point and remarkably fluff and waffle free. Not a single page was wasted. I'd like to continue translating that philosophy into my own projects.Any favorite advice from the book?
Coming to the realization that adding features doesn't necessarily add value. Work on features that add minimal value is a complete waste of time and only serves to distract from the important issues at hand.It's all too common for books to advise their readers to keep things simple, without detailing how to do so. It may seem trivial to many, but it's actually surprisingly difficult to implement consistently in the real world.
This was especially key for Timetoast as one man app. Every new feature would result in my already limited resources being tied up for a couple of days. It really had to be worth that investment, but often wasn't.
Any advice for people who want to start Getting Real?
Uhm... reading Getting Real would probably be a good start!I think if you want to start getting real, you need to redefine your concept of project success and go from there. You'll begin to understand why the traditional ways of developing an application rely too heavily on the end product and not on how you're actually going to get there. You'll find yourself dropping features and watch in horror as your app turns into a jumbled-up mess that doesn't do any one thing particularly well, but lots of things badly.
Thanks Daniel and good luck with Timetoast!
